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Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

forum.flightradar24.com

11–20 of 31 posts

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems not, because, even later: "fr24feed appears to be doing 12 NTP queries direct to servers around the world every ten minutes, which is about three times as much load as the pool recommends and appears to be a very high load on the parts of the world where there are few volunteers running NTP servers" https://forum.flightradar24.com/threads/11042-Excessive-DNS-...

While 1.2 vs 0.4 requests per minute is indeed a factor of three, calling it "abuse" instead of something like "misconfigured" or "misuse" seems overblown. What are you going to call the initial report of thousands of requests per second then?

It's not overblown to characterize something about a system you are told not to do "abuse". If it is misuse, it is abuse. Words mean things.

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help feel that we have gotten a generation of programmers and whatsnot that has no respect for existing tools. Rather than try to grok what is already out there they will instead grab whatever is the hyped language of the day and roll their own.

You're just describing inexperienced but somewhat technically competent developers. I was also like that at the beginning of my career. Most of the programmers go through this way. I guess the difference these days is that the ratio of people at the beginning of their careers to the seasoned developers is way higher and they are being assigned more and more critical tasks as demand goes through the roof.

And if you tell them that they are barking up the wrong tree, they run to social media to get you labeled as a "hater"...

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While 1.2 vs 0.4 requests per minute is indeed a factor of three, calling it "abuse" instead of something like "misconfigured" or "misuse" seems overblown. What are you going to call the initial report of thousands of requests per second then?

It's not overblown to characterize something about a system you are told not to do "abuse". If it is misuse, it is abuse. Words mean things.

Words do in fact mean things, and that's why there's so many of them. Abuse and misuse are two similar words with distinct connotations. Abusing something means it's intentional and is causing significant harm. Misusing something means using it in a way that could be accidental or intentional, but is contrary to the way the thing should be used.

I have to agree with the other person, unless this was done intentionally and the programmer knew it would cause damage, calling it abuse sounds overly dramatic. I think the word misuse is far more accurate here.

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#15

The NTP Pool has very simple guidelines for vendors distributing software with hard-coded NTP server names. Very simply, they ask that you set up a vendor DNS alias. Details here: http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/vendors.html#basic-guidelines The NTP Pool is an incredibly valuable public resource. It's run by volunteers, all they ask is you treat the resource with respect so it works for everyone.

Try explaining that to Poettering. [1] [2]

[1] https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2014-Au...

[2] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/437

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#16
This sounds like a bug (or maybe two bugs), not the result of any sort of policy decision. So, before taking a combative stance and trying to shame them into fixing it, it's important to make sure the relevant information has actually reached the person who actually could fix it, and they've had some time to work!

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#17

The NTP Pool has very simple guidelines for vendors distributing software with hard-coded NTP server names. Very simply, they ask that you set up a vendor DNS alias. Details here: http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/vendors.html#basic-guidelines The NTP Pool is an incredibly valuable public resource. It's run by volunteers, all they ask is you treat the resource with respect so it works for everyone.

Try explaining that to Poettering. [1] [2] [1] https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2014-Au... [2] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/437

I think you linked something that has little to do with the subject at hand in order to take a jab at Poettering. Lame behaviour.

The issue, as I remember it, is more complex than you suggest with your quip. Who is the vendor for a distributed copy of systemd, is it systemd or the distributor?

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try explaining that to Poettering. [1] [2] [1] https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2014-Au... [2] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/437

I think you linked something that has little to do with the subject at hand in order to take a jab at Poettering. Lame behaviour. The issue, as I remember it, is more complex than you suggest with your quip. Who is the vendor for a distributed copy of systemd, is it systemd or the distributor?

Both threads are exactly about the subject of the discussion. How does it have “little to do with the subject at hand?”

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#19

This sounds like a bug (or maybe two bugs), not the result of any sort of policy decision. So, before taking a combative stance and trying to shame them into fixing it, it's important to make sure the relevant information has actually reached the person who actually could fix it, and they've had some time to work!

The first post in that thread was made 2017-05-03.

Re: Excessive DNS queries for NTP pool addresses

#20

I used to love FL24, until it stopped supporting its Mac client which I paid for, rendering it useless. All you get is a message asking you to subscribe to the program you've already paid for.

What did the desktop client have that the web interface doesn't? Would love an OS X client personally.
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